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The majority of Americans understand the reasons why they need a will. After all, most adults are very familiar with wills, but less people understand living trusts. Often, estate planning attorneys hear people say, “If I have a will, why would I need a living trust?” You may assume that you need and want a will, but a will may not be ...
Continue reading "Why You May Want a Living Trust" »
Let’s say that your close family member or friend passed away and you were surprised to learn that he or she named you as the executor of their will. You may be honored to take on the job, or you may feel that you simply don’t have the time or the energy to accept. You may think that despite how you feel, you don’t have a choice ...
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With the divorce rate in the United States averaging around 50 percent, it’s understandable why we have millions of blended families. Since there are so many complicated family situations, a lot of Americans have questions about the inheritance rights of both biological and stepchildren. For example, let’s say that a man had two ...
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After someone passes away, an executor or personal representative will be appointed to administer their estate during probate proceedings. The executor/personal representative will gather the decedent’s assets, settle the decedent’s taxes and debts, and distribute any remaining assets to the beneficiaries of the estate. The executor who ...
Continue reading "Executors and Breach of Fiduciary Duty" »
Relationships between parents and their adult children can be complicated, especially when a relationship has soured due to parental alienation or a divorce. In the United States, a parent can take steps to legally disinherit their child, unless they live in Louisiana (where special rules apply), assuming the parent drafts a valid will and leaves ...
Continue reading "Importance of a Will When Disinheriting Children" »
When someone passes away, the probate process is usually straightforward. Once the decedent’s debts and taxes are paid off, the remaining assets are distributed to the heirs of the estate. Once in a while an heir will be completely out of touch with the family, often because of a disagreement from long ago. It’s not uncommon for there ...
Continue reading "What if an Heir Cannot Be Located?" »
A lot of parents don’t talk to their children about their assets, and it’s understandable. In the United States, it’s usually not polite to talk about a person’s wealth, and that belief extends to families as well. But, if you don’t talk to your children about their future inheritance, they may have a difficult time ...
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A large percentage of American workers have a retirement account of some sort, whether it’s an IRA or a 401(k), therefore, it’s important to know how to properly plan for these assets in one’s estate planning documents. From taxes to beneficiary designations, you need to know how your retirement account is distributed when you ...
Continue reading "Inherited Retirement Accounts 101" »
Carrying out the job of an executor is no easy task. At first, it seems like an honor, but as time passes the executor soon realizes that it’s not all sunshine and roses. When people write their wills, they will usually select a trusted person, such as their spouse, an adult child, a sibling, or a close friend to act as the executor of their ...
Continue reading "Common Mistakes Made by Executors" »
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If you are like most people, you want to leave as much money as possible to your spouse, children, grandchildren or other heirs, and you want to limit court costs and legal fees as much as possible so more money stays in your estate. To do this, many people turn to a living trust to help avoid probate and the associated fees. Probate involves the ...
Continue reading "How a Living Trust Avoids Probate" »
In April of 2016, Prince died without a will, meaning Prince died “intestate.” Considering the size of Prince’s estate, it could take years to sort out. The fact that Prince died without leaving behind a valid will is surprising since he was no stranger to contractual agreements, which were an important aspect of his music career. ...
Continue reading "Why We Put Off Estate Planning" »
Divorce is difficult, whether you’ve been married for 5 years or 25, but it’s especially hard on couples who have been married for decades, who spent years putting money into savings, tailoring estate plans and planning for a comfortable retirement. For the Baby Boomer generation, going into what’s been coined a “grey ...
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Are you divorced, remarried, or widowed? If so, estate planning will be extra tricky. If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are in a blended family situation, you will simply have more opportunities to make mistakes. That being said, you also want to make sure that your assets are distributed to your current spouse, and not your ex. ...
Continue reading "For the Blended Family, Estate Planning is Tricky" »
If you have been appointed as an executor of an estate, you may be wondering if you really need a probate attorney. A job well done as an executor means you need to be good at math, and you must pay meticulous attention to detail. If you are the main beneficiary of the estate, and the estate is simple and consists mainly of a house, life insurance ...
Continue reading "Should Executors Hire Probate Attorneys?" »
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (ACL), in 2014, the older population (individuals 65 and older) was 46.2 million in the United States – representing 14.5 percent of the population. The ACL estimates that by the year 2060, there will be about 98 million elderly adults in the ...
Continue reading "Why Medicaid Planning is a Must" »
In our litigious society, we are all vulnerable to being sued, especially those with significant assets. If you happen to work in a field where lawsuits are commonplace, for example, you’re a doctor, a home builder, a lawyer, an architect, or business owner, a lawsuit may be one of your foremost concerns. According to a study published in the ...
Continue reading "Shielding Your Assets From Lawsuits" »
Probate is a court-supervised process where a decedent’s will is validated, an executor or personal representative is appointed, and the decedent’s affairs are wrapped up – all under the watchful eyes of the probate court. Surprisingly, individuals with large and small estates die without a will. Dying without a will does not make ...
Continue reading "What Probate Has to Do With You" »
If you are about to begin the estate planning process, you may be thinking ahead to probate and wondering, “Should I arrange my estate so that it avoids probate altogether?” This is a good question indeed and the way you decide to handle it will affect how fast your heirs receive their inheritance and how much your estate will be worth ...
Continue reading "Why Do People Avoid Probate?" »
If you are an heir or beneficiary to an estate, you may have imagined that receiving an inheritance is much like it’s depicted on film. The decedent’s heirs gather in the attorney’s office as he reads the will to a captive audience. In the movies, after the “reading of the will,” the heirs receive a check from the ...
Continue reading "Advantages of Probate Administration" »
In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court made history when it decided that same-sex couples could legally marry in all states, but this landmark decision did not resolve all the financial issues faced by same-sex couples. With gay marriage in its infantile stages, it's met some opposition. This is just one of the reasons that same-sex couples are ...
Continue reading "Same-Sex Couples & Planning for the Future" »
About half of all first marriages end in divorce. With that in mind, there is a strong probability that you are a stepparent, your spouse is, or your ex has remarried and your son or daughter is in a stepparent relationship. Millions of Americans are divorced, remarried or widowed, and for them, estate planning is more complex than it is for intact ...
Continue reading "Estate Planning for Your Blended Family" »
Probate is a court-supervised process where an executor or personal representative pays off the decedent’s debts, transfers legal title of the decedent’s property to the heirs, pays the decedent’s taxes and distributes the remaining assets to the beneficiaries. If there was a will, the person named in the will as the executor is ...
Continue reading "Mistakes Made By Personal Representatives" »
When you die, what will happen to the songs you downloaded on iTunes? Will your Facebook account stay floating in cyberspace long after you’re gone? As our society becomes more technologically advanced, each one of us is slowly accumulating digital assets. For some, the value of these digital assets can be in the tens of thousands, thus, more ...
Continue reading "Estate Planning: Protecting Digital Assets" »
Today, there are more singles than ever before. With the divorce rate being 50 percent for first marriages and even higher for second and third marriages, it’s not surprising that America has a large single population. Are you single? Whether you’re divorced, widowed or never married, you need to be just as concerned about estate ...
Continue reading "Estate Planning for Singles" »
By drafting a will, you’re telling the world whom you want to receive your assets after you pass away. If you die without one, it’s up to the state to decide who gets what, regardless of your heirs’ needs or what you would have wanted. The intestacy laws (dying without a will) vary widely from state to state. Generally, if you die ...
Continue reading "Reasons to Consider a Pour-Over Will" »
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